


Flower Language

by Dream_Traveler_Kirvee



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Marchen Dream (IDOLiSH7), Animal Traits, Communication, Friendship, Gen, Nonverbal Communication, Selectively Mute Tamaki, becoming friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:08:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23508136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dream_Traveler_Kirvee/pseuds/Dream_Traveler_Kirvee
Summary: Twice a year Sougo visits his Uncle. Twice a year the villagers of Papilio shower him in gifts to bring to his Uncle who lives a reclusive life in the woods.For the first time on one of these visits, though, Sougo makes a friend.
Relationships: Ousaka Sougo & Yotsuba Tamaki
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17
Collections: Dear Butterfly: MEZZO" Exchange





	Flower Language

**Author's Note:**

> *slides in late* MEZZO Day isn't over if it's still happening in at least one time zone *finger guns*.
> 
> This was written for Rinya Kat/rinya_kat over on Twitter for the Dear MEZZO Exchange!
> 
> I was given 3 AU prompts and the only one I felt semi capable of doing was the Marchen Dream one, so thank you for the prompt! I did a lot of research for this, so I hope you like it.
> 
> Thank you to Alle/silverskys for betaing and being my accountability check and Ciel/ednae for being moral support.

Sougo sighs as he rearranges the basket on his arms, muscles aching from the weight and protesting the indents. The people of Papilio always welcome him warmly whenever he arrives for his bi-yearly visits by heaping more food than necessary onto him—more food than his modestly sized basket can carry sometimes too. It always happens as he’s passing through the middle of the village on his way to the woods’ entrance. His Uncle, who he stays with while he’s here, lives in the middle of the neighboring woodland. Despite his reclusiveness, everyone in Papilio knows and loves him; by extension they know and love Sougo. And because of that love, they shower Sougo in gifts meant to be shared between his Uncle and him.

“It’s impolite and disgraceful to reject a gift once offered.” His father would drill into his head as a boy.

Because of this, Sougo found it difficult—nigh impossible—to refuse anything offered to him.

“Sougo!” The baker would call as he’s walking, causing him to stop and listen, “I just baked an extra pan of fresh bread. Here, here, take it! It’s your Uncle’s favorite!”

Even if he wanted to protest he couldn’t, because that would be impolite and bring disgrace to his family, to his Uncle most of all and he loved his Uncle. So Sougo smiles and helps arrange the bread—still warm to the touch—in his basket while thanking the baker and waving as he continues onward to the other end of the village.

Except on the way he’s stopped again by the butcher, who gives him several pounds of freshly cured meats to go with the bread. And again by the local farmer who gives him a dozen eggs with a smile on her face and he can only smile back and nod and accept the gift.

He’s almost to the other side of the village when the tailor, too, flags him down and over to his stall. This time, however, the gifts for them are a scarf and a crimson cloak.

“Been a while since ya were around these parts, so ya probably haven’t heard,” the tailor says while fastening the cloak around Sougo’s shoulders.

“H-Heard what?” Sougo asks without thinking, blinking in curiosity before apologizing for the interruption.

The tailor waves it off and continues in a more hushed tone, leaning closer to Sougo, “Old Man Earl says he’s seen a _wolf_ prowling ‘round the woods over yonder. A huge one. Vicious too, so I’m told. Ya never hear ‘im til he’s already pounced on ya.”

“V-Vicious how?”

Sougo’s eyes widen at the news. A wolf isn’t unheard of in the woods, but it’s pretty rare for one to venture this close to a human settlement.

“They say once he pounces he don’t let go of ya, ever. And if you try to escape he starts gettin’ violent and thrashes and may even tackle ya. Best to be avoidin’ ‘im at all costs if I was you.”

And then the tailor steps back, pats both of Sougo’s shoulders so hard he wobbles and nods before turning back to his wares and Sougo takes that as his cue to leave, finally crossing the threshold and heading towards the woods.

Now he stands in the shadows of the looming trees, basket heavy in his arms. He breathes deeply, steeling his nerves. It’ll be fine, he thinks, because the sun is still high in the sky and wolves weren’t likely to be active in daylight. His Uncle has long since created a simple path through the woods that's easy to follow. As long as Sougo keeps to it and doesn’t pause for too long, he should make it to his Uncle’s cabin before the sun falls.

With this thought as a comfort, Sougo enters the forest, letting the shelter of the trees swallow him.

* * *

A few hours later he’s only halfway to the cabin. It turns out carrying several pounds of food in a basket a size or two too small is more strenuous than he thought, resulting in him having to stop and rest far more than he normally does. The sun still has light left to burn, though, so even with the slight delay he figures he’ll manage to get there with time left to spare.

It’s during one of these breaks that something catches his eye a few feet into the sea of trees that surround the beaten path. There’s enough space between them that it allows for beams of sunlight to break through the canopies and spotlight the area. A patch of wild flowers grows nestled in the small clearing between the trees. When his mother was alive she kept a garden at their house and as a boy he would sometimes help her care for them. He always liked how pretty they were and since her untimely death whenever he sees flowers they remind him of her. Tending to flowers lets him feel close to his mother again like he used to, though his father strongly disapproves of such behavior.

His Uncle also loves flowers and from where he stands he can see a mix of various kinds that both of his precious family members love. Bluebells, violets, morning glories, a few other kinds that he doesn’t know the names of, but what stands out most in the patch to him are the nemophilas growing in the center of the flower patch. Those were his mother’s favorite flower, and before he knows it he’s left the path and is now standing just outside the border of the patch.

He gently sets his basket down on the dirt nearby, careful not to crush any flowers, and kneels to inspect the nemophilas. Despite being wild flowers, they appear remarkably healthy with no sign of disease. He looks up to where the sun is filtering through the leaves. Well…if it’s just a few flowers, he can afford to take a few moments more on this break to make a small bouquet for his Uncle.

Smiling at the thought of how happy his Uncle would be at receiving a bouquet of his favorite flowers, he gets to work. All the while humming a soft tune that his mother used to hum as well when tending her garden.

* * *

Before long he’s amassed a small bundle of blue and purple and white flowers, but the sun no longer shines as brightly on the flower patch. A quick glance up confirms that although the sky is still partially lit the sun is getting dangerously low. It’ll be dark within a few hours.

Cursing softly under his breath for getting distracted and wasting more precious hours than he’d meant to, he gathers up his basket along with the bouquet and swiftly returns to the beaten path. Thankfully, at least, it wasn’t yet dark enough to cause him to lose it. The woods on either side of it, though, are getting darker—the flower patch is hard to make out now in the dim light. It’s fine, he thinks, if he walks at a swift pace and doesn’t take any more long breaks he should arrive at his Uncle’s cabin just as the sun sets. It’s a safer option than going back to the village, because by the time he makes it out of the woods, the sun will have already set anyway.

He nods to himself with a determined sound before continuing along the path, basket still as heavy as it was before. After a few minutes of walking and the woods growing darker to the point of having to watch the ground so he can stay on the path, the sound of a twig snapping somewhere to his right makes him freeze and look up. Due to the darkness, though, he can’t see anything. And no matter how much he tries to focus on the woods around him he doesn’t hear anything else besides the beginning chirps of crickets.

Breathing a sigh of relief and relaxing again, he continues once his eyes find the path in front of him again. He remembers what the tailor told him, but tries not to think about the warning. Maybe the sound was just a squirrel, or a branch falling naturally. Branches do that sometimes. Yeah. That’s definitely what it was. There’s no way he’s being followed by a wolf. Absolutely—

The sound of another twig snapping, this time to his left, catches him off guard to the point of jumping with a yelp. Once again, though, he can’t see anything in the dark shroud of the trees and after a few moments of— _slightly_ —panicked breathing no new sounds reach him either. He presses onward at a slightly quicker pace.

He doesn’t know if it’s his imagination or if perhaps the local squirrel population is having a riot, but even with his quickened pace the sound of twigs snapping seem to be happening even more now. Okay…so maybe he is being followed.

Sougo unconsciously holds his basket closer to him, clinging to it as if it were a teddy bear. It’s fine! He’s fine! It’s just a little bit more to his Uncle’s cabin. He’ll be fine. Everything is just—

The bushes to his left rustle and something, somewhere, scurries across the ground. Sougo screams, undignified, dashing into the trees on his right.

It’s not fine! He’s not fine! None of this is fine!

He screams occasionally while he runs, darting between trees and jumping through the underbrush. Maybe if he makes a lot of noise and runs for a little while whatever’s following him will get scared and run away from him! That’s what he hopes.

Sougo doesn’t stop running until his legs begin to shake and he’s gasping for air. He leans his shoulder against the nearest tree trunk as he catches his breath, still clutching his basket to his chest. Odd, he’s sure nothing fell out of it but it doesn’t seem as heavy when he runs.

He’s just managing to catch his breath and beginning to believe he’s lost his stalker when he feels pressure like a hand on his shoulder.

“Yo.”

He screams, leaps away and turns, trips, his back hits a different tree and his ass hits the ground; any air he’s just regained is lost again with the impact.

A boy stares wide-eyed at him. Sougo blinks. The boy blinks back. What’s a boy doing out here in the woods this late? Sougo doesn’t recognize him from the village and the only person that lives in the woods is his Uncle. There’s movement just behind the boy and despite the dim light Sougo realizes it’s a tail. And only then does he notice the ears this boy has are not human.

It’s a wolf. A wolf is staring at him. Not just a wolf, _the_ wolf the tailor had mentioned earlier. The vicious wolf who won’t let you escape once he’s found you. So he _is_ real! Oh no. He has no weapon and the tree trunk pressing into his back reminds him he has no escape either.

The wolf takes a step forward and Sougo involuntarily—futilely—attempts to flee by pressing his back more against the tree. The wolf takes another step towards him and Sougo pinches his eyes shut and slightly raises his basket in a futile attempt to hide. This is it, he thinks, this is how he dies. His only regret is that he couldn’t say goodbye to his Uncle, so he can only hope his death doesn’t weigh too heavily on him. The wolf is directly in front of him now and Sougo makes peace with his fate.

A beat passes. Then another. Sougo isn’t dead. Tentatively, he peeks an eye open to find a flower in his face. He recognizes it as a nemophila from the flower patch. On the other side of the flower is the wolf who’s squatting to be at eye level, his unoccupied hand rubbing the back of his neck. He’s still staring at Sougo.

“Um,” he says dumbly, still trying to process the fact he’s not actually dead.

The wolf makes a soft grunting noise and pushes the flower closer to Sougo, his nose almost in the bulb. Sougo turns his head so the flower’s on his cheek instead and smiles uneasily.

“I-Is this for me?” He asks, unsure if the wolf actually understands him or not.

He’s fairly certain it was the wolf he heard talk before, but so far he hasn’t said anything else. As if in reply the wolf makes another grunting sound and bats the flower against Sougo’s cheek. It almost tickles.

“Okay, okay!” He says in the best placating tone he can manage. He shifts the basket in his arms so he can reach up with one hand to carefully accept the flower, “Thank…you?”

The wolf doesn’t say anything but beams once the flower’s exchanged hands. The expression is oddly…cute. Childish. Sougo feels himself relaxing. Is this _really_ the vicious wolf he was warned about?

“Do you, um, have a name?”

The wolf tilts his head but doesn’t make any sound or say anything in reply.

“Ah—um, c-can you…understand what I’m saying?” Sougo tries asking instead, unsure what kind of reply he’ll get if any.

“Wolf.”

“Huh?”

“Wolf!” The wolf says again more emphatically.

Sougo frowns in confusion, unsure what it’s meant to be an answer to. If it’s an answer to anything at all.

“Is…Is your name Wolf?”

“Wolf!”

Ah. A wolf named Wolf. He should’ve guessed as much.

“Nice to meet you, Wolf! My name’s Sougo.”

“Sougo,” Wolf repeats as if trying to understand the name, “Sougo…Wolf?”

Wolf tilts his head again to the side and Sougo can’t help but laugh softly.

“No, Sougo human.”

“Human,” Wolf again repeats the last word he said while frowning in concentration, “Human…friend?”

“Do you…want to be friends?” It was Sougo’s turn to tilt his head inquisitively.

“Friend!” Wolf jumps in what Sougo can only assume is delight at saying the word, “Friend! Friend! Friend! Sougo Human Wolf Friend!”

“Y-Yes, um, that’s right?”

He honestly couldn’t tell how much Wolf actually understood what he was saying or if he was just echoing words he heard. Maybe it was a mix of both? Sougo turns the nemophila between his fingers in thought.

He remembers the tailor’s words and frowns. A vicious wolf doesn’t offer flowers to their victims. This wolf, if he’s the same wolf, must be a friendly one then. If that’s the case, perhaps the rumor was because of the language barrier? He could see how that might alarm some of the villagers.

Wolf is watching him curiously and Sougo suddenly remembers the time. It’s then with dread that he realizes two things: that he’s lost in the woods, and that at some point while running he’d lost the bouquet he’d sacrificed so much time to make. He groans and thunks the back of his head against the tree trunk. Stupid Sougo. Stupid, stupid Sougo. He closes his eyes as he mentally admonishes himself.

Wolf makes a few grunting noises that sound almost like a question and Sougo opens his eyes again to look at him. Wolf now looks both curious and worried.

“Ah, um, it’s just—well, I was on my way to my Uncle’s cabin and, um, well I’d stopped and gathered some flowers to bring to him and was trying to get there before the sun set, but…”

He sighs and tilts his head up to look at the sky, unsure how much of what he said was actually absorbed by his new friend. The woods were now so dark that it would be impossible for him to find his way back to the path on his own.

Rustling draws his attention back to Wolf, who’d moved to a bush nearby. Sougo raises an eyebrow in curiosity just as Wolf turns to walk back over to him.

“What are you—” he’s cut off by even more flowers being shoved in front of his face, blinking quickly in surprise.

Wolf makes an inquisitive grunt while tapping the flowers against Sougo’s head like he’d done with the nemophila earlier. It’s then that Sougo realizes what he’s being offered is the bouquet he had lost.

“Oh! Did you find this for me?”

Another grunt is all he gets for an answer, so he accepts the rest of the flowers, adding the new nemophila to it.

“Thank you! Ah—but I myself am still lost…if I can’t find the path again I’ll never be able to make it to my Uncle’s cabin…”

The short-term elation he felt at one lost item being found is swiftly replaced again with growing dread. A tug on his sleeve pulls him back out of spiraling negativity. It’s Wolf, of course.

“What is it?”

Wolf tugs a little harder on his sleeve before letting go and moving a few feet away, then turning back to look at Sougo again, “Wolf!”

Sougo isn’t sure what he’s supposed to do. Wolf waits a few moments before walking back over and repeating the motions, this time with a low grunting noise. When he moves away again, Sougo thinks he might understand.

“Do you…want me to follow you?”

“Wolf!” Wolf seems happy, his tail swishing side to side.

“O-Oh! Okay!”

Sougo gets up now, careful to not drop or crush the flowers as he settles them against the top of his basket and dusts off the cloak where it got dirty.

“Wolf! Wolf!”

“Yes, yes I heard you.” He smiles as he approaches Wolf, noticing now that he’s a bit taller than Sougo himself, “Um, p-please lead the way!”

Wolf grunts in reply and then turns to walk in what Sougo hopes is the direction they had come from.

* * *

In what seems like no time at all they break through the tree line and Sougo finds himself once more on the beaten path. Once he realizes that, it takes him only a moment to regain his bearings—even with it being dark now.

“Wolf!” Wolf says in what Sougo interprets as a triumphant sound.

“You found it! Good boy! Thank you so much!” Sougo praises, reaching up without thinking to pet Wolf between the ears.

Wolf freezes at the action, eyes wide and tail swishing slowly. Sougo begins to retract his hand with an apology, but Wolf beams brightly. He seems happy to be praised, so Sougo smiles in return.

Figuring Wolf will return to the woods now that things were finally over, Sougo turns to once again begin walking towards his Uncle’s cabin. A tug on his arm and a whining noise cause him to stop and turn back to look at Wolf.

“Y-Yes?”

He can’t quite read Wolf’s expression. His eyebrows are drawn together and his eyes are wide and vulnerable. It almost seems like he’s pouting, too.

“Friend!” Wolf exclaims and Sougo once again isn’t sure what he’s trying to say.

He did agree to be friends…but surely Wolf has other friends too? Maybe not human friends, but animal friends of some kind? That’s how this stuff works, isn’t it?

“Sougo Friend!” Wolf says, shaking Sougo’s arm a bit in his grip.

“I-I am!” He affirms, still trying to figure out what Wolf’s trying to say.

“Sougo Human…” Wolf says softly this time, “Wolf Friend…”

Wolf’s voice breaks on the last word and it’s now that Sougo realizes that he’s…crying?

“Hey, hey, shh, it’s okay!” He soothes, reaching up with his free hand to pet between Wolf’s ears in a vain hope of it making him happy again.

It doesn’t work, but Wolf’s grip on his arm does loosen in favor of leaning into the petting. Sougo sighs through his nose as he examines this conversation—if it can be called that—and the previous ones, trying to figure out what’s wrong. What Wolf is trying to desperately say.

Is it possible Wolf doesn’t have any other friends? Was Sougo perhaps…his first friend? Was he perhaps…

“Are you…lonely?” He asks, scratching behind one of Wolf’s ears.

The only thing he receives as a reply is a low whine and Sougo’s heart nearly breaks. Wolf’s eyes—which had been closed while receiving pets—open when Sougo starts to retract his hand again. This time he can clearly read the fear in Wolf’s expression. Wolf doesn’t want him to leave. Wolf doesn’t want to be alone again. So Sougo turns his hand over to offer it instead.

“Would you like to come with me? My Uncle’s a nice man, I’m sure he’d accept you too!” He explains with a warm smile.

Wolf stares at his hand for a moment, seeming to process and consider the offer. Then, in an odd display of shyness, Wolf hovers his own hand over Sougo’s before finally accepting it. Sougo squeezes it gently before walking again; Wolf follows just behind him before moving up to be at his side. Their hands remain together.

Sougo only visits his Uncle twice a year. For as long as he can remember, it was always just the two of them. The villagers always heap an excess of gifts onto him to bring to his Uncle. So much so that by the time Sougo left there would still be food leftover. His Uncle and he were only two people, after all. It’s a good thing, then, that they had more than enough food for three.

**Author's Note:**

> So I found out the flower Tamaki holds in his MD card is a nemophila and hey, you wanna see how hard I can cry?
> 
> "Nemophila flowers may look small and fragile but they are attributed with a wonderful, rare power: the power to heal. According to "Flower Essence Repertory", a book by Patricia Kaminski, the essence of Nemophila helps improve the emotional state of people who experienced a lack of love throughout their childhood. The beautiful color of this flower also helps relieve stress."
> 
> That's how hard I can cry ='D
> 
> Also this is....my first published i7 fic hello I actually have like 2 others in progress that may or may not ever see completion who knows.
> 
> Thank you for reading! Please leave kudos and comments.


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